21mm f2.8, enough for Short Film?

T

thesammyshow

Member
Hello, I am looking for a lens that can shoot wide and close shots. I am very green when it comes to lenses. I will be shooting with the 5D and from reviews I've read the Zeiss 21mm f2.8 should be amazing but I just don't know what type of shots are best for it.

Any insight would be very helpful. Thanks
 
Wide-angles are good for wide angles of view but they tend to distort faces if you do close-ups with them. Not to mention you'll have to put the camera right in front of the actor's face depending on the focal length. 21mm at FF, yeah, not good for that.

You'd need an 85mm for a decent CU at FF.

If you want a versatile prime lens I'd go with a 50~65mm lens at FF.

In the end, enough is subjective, I barely know what you need, the style of the shooting etc etc.
 
I agree, you definitely don't want to shoot a short on a 5D with a lens as wide as 21mm, unless you want to go for distorted proportions in people.
You may look into shooting with a 35mm, I used a Leica R 35mm Summicron for a project with a 5D, it focuses pretty close, can't remember how close though. I found that lens to be very versatile. And you always can get a good quality diopter lens if you need to get closer.

50mm may not be wide enough, why don't you go to a local store and ask them to test run a few different focal lenghts, you'll see immediately what will suit your film best.
 
yeah a 21mm might be too wide for ALL shots in your film. i'm personally a big fan of wide angle shots in film, which has become very rare to be used more than telephoto lenses. but it does all depend on the content and aesthetic you're trying to achieve, and to what end.

here's from the Wikipedia article on A Clockwork Orange:
Technically, to achieve and convey the fantastic, dream-like quality of the story, he filmed with extreme wide-angle lenses such as the Kinoptik Tegea 9.8mm for 35mm Arriflex cameras...
Click to expand...

so, 9.8mm on 35mm motion picture film almost looks like 15mm on a full frame Canon 5d mark ii.

so you might be able to get away with such a wide lens, as long as it agrees with the content of your story, and your directing style.

but, you might want to consider a 35mm, llke youngindiefilms suggested.
 
thanks a lot guys for the helpful information. I am now gonna go with the Zeiss 35mm f2.0, I believe that would be the right choice for my project.
 
i have to ask, but have you considered getting a not-so-expensive lens?

you could get a couple decent lenses for the price of the zeiss. that's if you wanted to save money and not make a compromise on one lens.
 
thats true and definately a possibility, I am just thinking of slowly building a collection of quality lenses that can stay with me for many years to come, with the first being a versatile one to shoot a variety of scenes. Although, starting with a couple decent cheaper sigma lenses would probably serve better for the purpose of being versatile. So many choices, lol.
 
i would also look into older manual primes. you can possible get 3 Nikon ai lenses 24, 35, 50 or 35, 50, 85 which will give u far more to work with...and these are quality lenses.

THERE are also the Supertakumars. (i have a 50mm1.4 which i luv). U can get the 35,50,85...ebay is your friend :) All for the price of one zeiss. Also quality glass.
 
I wouldn't go with sigma glass, stay canon. You could get the 28 f1.8, 50 f1.4 and 85 f1.8 and be well covered. Look at Ken Rockwell's site for reviews of those lenses.

FYI if you are also buying the camera now, it may be better to go for a t2i since 5dii is within a year of end of life. In that case I would go t2i, canon 17-55 2.8 is, canon 50 1.4 and tokina 11-16 2.8
 
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